{"id":267369,"date":"2020-09-02T04:54:09","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T08:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=267369"},"modified":"2020-09-02T04:54:09","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T08:54:09","slug":"no-need-to-blacklist-chinese-firms-arbitral-ruling-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/09\/02\/no-need-to-blacklist-chinese-firms-arbitral-ruling-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"No need to blacklist Chinese firms, arbitral ruling enough"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this remark after President Rodrigo Duterte decided to allow Chinese companies banned in the US to continue operating in the Philippines. (File Photo: JOEY DALUMPINES\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday does not see a need for the Philippines to copy the United States’ decision to blacklist Chinese firms to show that it does not condone Beijing’s construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this remark after President Rodrigo Duterte decided to allow Chinese companies banned in the US to continue operating in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. earlier recommended terminating local contracts with any Chinese companies involved in the reclamations in the disputed waters.<\/p>\n

Roque said the government is already \u201csatisfied\u201d by asserting its sovereign rights by raising the Hague-based arbitral court\u2019s 2016 decision which invalidates China\u2019s vast claims on the contested territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is already a decision there that the Philippines has sovereign rights where they build the artificial islands and that means that whoever built those artificial islands had no legal basis to do so and we\u2019re satisfied with that decision,\u201d he said in an interview over CNN Philippines\u2019 The Source.<\/p>\n

He said that while the government is not abandoning the Philippines\u2019 historic arbitration victory against China, he believes that the two countries can still enjoy close trade and investment relations.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor as long as the decision stands, we can proceed forward on matters that we think we can push on such as trade and investment and meanwhile, set aside matters that we cannot resolve perhaps in our lifetime. But we are satisfied the UN tribunal of the sea ruled that only the Philippines could have built on those islands because they form part of our exclusive economic zone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Roque, President Rodrigo Duterte is bent on pursuing national interest which includes completing all projects under its \u201cBuild, Build, Build\u201d infrastructure program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President has actually spoken about the matter. He said we will pursue the national interest and the national interest dictates that we finish the flagship projects of the \u2018Build, Build, Build\u2019 and therefore he will not follow footsteps of Americans. He will respect the contracts that we have entered into with Chinese companies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte\u2019s decision to allow Chinese firms to continue operations in the country means that projects including the PHP500-billion Sangley International Airport project in Cavite will push through.<\/p>\n

The Sangley Airport project was bagged by state-owned China Communications Construction Co. Ltd (CCCC) and Lucio Tan’s MacroAsia.<\/p>\n

Several firms related to CCCC were among those facing restrictions imposed by the US.<\/p>\n

On July 12, 2016, the Philippines won the arbitration case it lodged against China after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands invalidated Beijing’s nine-dash line claim over the contested waters.<\/p>\n

China, refusing to acknowledge the arbitral ruling, has continued to claim ownership over nearly 90 percent of the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Since Duterte assumed office in 2016, he has opted to pursue a non-adversarial approach to address the maritime row with China.<\/p>\n

China plays a crucial role in the Duterte government\u2019s BBB infrastructure program by providing financial assistance for a number of major infrastructure projects like bridges and railways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday does not see a need for the Philippines to copy the United States’ decision to blacklist …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":252612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267377,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267369\/revisions\/267377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}